DISCUSSIONS will take place later this year on a replacement for Air Passenger Duty.

John Swinney, Finance Secretary said that he is seeking expert advice on setting up a replacement tax to the one which airports and airlines say is a barrier to attracting new routes and passengers to Scotland.

Mr Swinney and Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown chaired a meeting with the aviation industry, tax experts and environmental campaigners to discuss policy when Scotland takes control of APD.

Airlines welcomed the decision to cut the tax by 50%and said experience in other countries points to an increase in traffic and passengers.

Mr Swinney said the next step after devolution of the power over Apr from Westminster to Holyrood was in designing a replacement that suited Scotland’s needs.

He said: “We want to be consultative and collaborative as we have been with the new fiscal levers already devolved to Scotland. The forum and this autumn’s policy consultation allow us to take the next step and begin the process of designing and developing a Scottish APD to help deliver our objective of sustainable economic growth.”

Mr Brown said growing the economy and taking advantage of opportunities was the aim.

He said: “Scotland is already an attractive destination for business and inbound tourism and we want to open up Scotland to key and emerging markets to capitalise on the opportunities that exist.

“UK APD has been the most expensive tax of its kind in Europe and continues to act as a barrier to Scotland’s ability to secure new direct international services and maintain existing ones.

“Devolution of APD to the Scottish Parliament will provide the opportunity to put in place new arrangements which better support the Scottish Government’s objective to help generate new direct routes and increase inbound tourism.”

Budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair, who both operate from Glasgow Airport said it would remove a block on investment.

Sophie Dekkers, easyJet’s UK director, said:“easyJet has long campaigned for the removal of Air Passenger Duty. We know that its impact is most keenly felt in Scotland where passengers flying domestically pay £13 on both ?flights.

“Now that powers over APD are being devolved to Scotland, and as Scotland’s biggest airline, we are pleased to be working with the Scottish Government to halve and then abolish the tax.

“When APD is halved passengers in Scotland will quickly feel the benefit, with easyJet and other airlines adding more services to existing destinations and launching flights to new destinations from Scotland.?"

Kate Sherry, Ryanair's Deputy Director of Route Development, said: "One need only look to Ireland to see the effect scrapping APD has had, with tourist traffic rising by almost 10 per cent since APD was abolished in April 2014 and the VAT received from the additional tourist spend far exceeding the loss of APD.”